“The National Film and Television School’s (NFTS) GRADUAT IMPACT REPORT LANDED TUESDAY, AND DIRECTOR JON WARDLE IS Taking Thr ThRUGH ITS WILDLY IMPRESSIVE NUMBERS. Every Five Years, The NFTS, LoCated in Buckinghamshire, England – and Included on the Hollywood Reporter’s 2025 List of Best International Film Schools”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Every Five Years, The NFTS, LoCated in Buckinghamshire, England – and Included On The Hollywood Reporter‘S 2025 List of Best International Film Schools – Collects Annormous Amount of Data Demonstration Just How Its Alumni Are Continuing to Better The UK’s Busy Busy Film and TV Industry.
From big-Budget Blockbusters Wicked an Barbie to AcClaimed Indie Hits KneeCap, Love Lies Bleeding an SantoshThe New Report Highlights the Depth of the School’s Training, As Well As The Trust Played In NFTS Talent by the World’s Leading Producers, Studios and Platforms. And with Millions of Pounds of Funding on Its Way, The Nfts Has Big Plans to Bolster the Breadth of Their Teaching.
Director Jon Wardle, Who Has Worked at the NFTS Since 2012 and Been It Director Since 2017, Caunght Up with Thr for an exclusive first-look at the Numbers, Spanning the £ 28 Billion ($ 38 Billion) SPENT ON FILM AND HIGH-END TV PRODUCTION IN THE UK UK UP TO 2024. WARDLE’S FIVE DECTATE, HEPESTE School’s Mighty Footprint on Britain’s Entertainment Business As the NFTS REMAINS “A Key Driver of Industry Talent and A Powerful Factor in Attracting Inward Investment to The UK”
But The School’s Chief Also Wants to Make Known His Commitment to Preparing the Next Generation of Film and TV Creatives for a Rapidly-Canging Industry. “Am I Inviting People Into A Precarios Industry WHERE they’re not going to be abuld a successful life?” Wardle Asks, Adding: “I Want to Make Sure I’M Helping Them Build A Sustainable Career.”
1. Contribution to the UK’s Film and TV Industry Is Sky-High AT FIRST READ, Some of NFTS ‘NUMBERS Are Entirely Unbelievable. In Film, 75 Percent of UK Production Spend Since 2020 HAS INVOLVED AT LEAST ONE NFTS GRADUATE, AND THIS NUMBER RISES TO 89 PERCENT WHEN IT MIGH-End TV. At the Largest USA Studios and Producers – Including the Likes of Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Apple, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal and Warner Bros. – The School’s Grads Hve A Part to Play in Over 90 Percent of Their Film Spend in this Country. “I was really encouraged by that,” Wardle Says. “It’s Better Than Was in the Previous Five-Year Periods, Despite All The Challengs.”
On the Set of Jon M. Chu’s Blockbuster Hit Wicked Were 22 NFTS GRADUATES; for Star Wars‘Critically -acclaimed Spin-Off Series Andor with diego luna, It was 67. Elsewhere, 74 percent of revenuenues of the uk’s top 20 Box of the Office Hits and 78 percent of Revenues of the Country’s TopTTTTS inDendenti Films Films Films Films Films Films Films Films. role.
Pulling Together These Numbers Is A Task More Important Than Ever in An Industry in Desperate Need of Some Booyancy, Accounting To Wardle. “A STUDIO EXEC SAID THIS TO ME: ‘You’re The First Person Who’s Ever Come Into My Office And Shown Me With What Your Graduates Do on My Productions,’ ‘HE SAYS. “There’s Lots of Money Spen, Lots of Activity, But Can We Actulely Track Through What Those People Actual GO on to Do? We Recognize that if. Funders, Ten You Have to Be Able To Demonstrate To Them at the End of A Year, or at the end of a five-year period, what you’ve done on their shows and films. ” And it’s What Students Want, Too. “They Want to Know They’re Coming to A Course That Might Lead Them Onto Employment.”
Director Weronika Tofilksa and Jessica Gunning on the Set of ‘Baby Reindeer’. Nfts
2. Seniority Among Top Professions Continues to Grow Expected, Sure, But For Wardle, Still A Cause for Celebration. GRADUATES WHO WERE WORKING as Assistant Art Directors Five Years Ago Now Lead the Team. TOSE WHO STARTED OUT As Boom Ops Are Sound Recordists in Their Own Right. “I Hope, in Five Years’ Time, We’ll See That Grow Again,“ He Says. In the Film Sector, for Example, The Influence of NFTS GRADUATES HAS GRAWN IN TANDEM WITH The Industry’s Shift Town Large-Scale, Inward-InvESTMENT PROCATIONS Accorging to the report. Their Presence in Key Roles, Including Directors, Producers and Writers, on Inward-Investment Film and TV Projects Has Grown 60 Percent (2015-2019) To 67 Percent of Percent of PERCENT.
The School Hopes to Build on the Breadth of Vocination they Offer Thanks to a recent £ 10 Million ($ 13.5 Million) Investment from the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media aniac. Million ($ 8 Million) Fundraized by the Industry. “We’re Going to Start Some Disciplines,“ Explands Wardle. “WE DON’T TEACH COSTUME [design] at the school. We’re Going to Start A Costume Department. We’re Looking in the Space AUND Generative AI and Also Visual Effects and Virtual Production. We’re Developing Two or Three New Courses in that Space As We Try and Connect The Dots Between Tradween Art Departments and Visual Effects and New Modes of Production, Like Virtual Virtual. So we’re going to come out with Three New Courses by the end of the year in that Space. ”
As the school explores the posibilites of ai, wardle admits they make no effort to try and create “Fully ai Films.” It Comes in the Wake of Uproar Over Ai “Actress” Tilly Norwood, Who, Upon News That Agencies Are Looking to Sign The Computer-Genered Talent SAG-AFTRA, EQUITY, AND SOME OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST NOTEBLE ONOSCRENN NAMES. Wardle Says The Nfts Will Be Helping Those in Different Craft Roles Embrace The Use of Artificial Intelligence WHEN NEEDED. “We’ve also have people come to US and SAY, ‘YOU’RE YOU’S SELLING OUT. YOU SHOULDN’S BE Doing This,’ ‘HE SAID. “But that feels like a very Naive person, Because [AI] is not going away. The genie is not going back in the bottle. So the key thing is, how do you help people navigate it etfectively and ethically, also understand their own boundaries in it? ”
3. One in Three NFTS GRADUATES Come from Diverse Backgrounds Through £ 2 Million-a-year Scholarships, an Annual Fundraising Gala and with Hubs Across The Country, The NFTS HAS BOLSTERED ITS DIVERSITIVE INITATIVE. This year, their Stats Pull Out A 2021/2022 ofCom Report that States Just 16 Percent of Employees Working in Britain’s Film and TV Industry Are From An Ethnically DIVERSE Nfts. “I’M Really Proud of That,” Wardle Tells Thr. “We Are Now Delivering Activity All Over The Country. We’ve Got Hubs in Glasgow, Cardiff, Leeds, and We’re Denfinitely Seeing that People Who Engaging With Us, in Those Hubs Time Course, Their Confident is Built Thaty [feel they] Can Go On and Do Something More Substanv. ”
With the aforementioned Funding from the DCMS, The Nfts Campus Will Soon Boast Accommodation for Disable Students. At the Moment, Wardle Explands, Disablets Students Either have to live in London or Oxford and Commute in. “We Can’t Talk About Being Inclusive and Wanting The Verys Best People to Come – No Matter of Background – and THEN SAY TO THEM, ‘BUT YOU HAVE TO LIVE 45 MINUTES AWELYLYLYA. Says.
The School Is Also Proud to Provide It Direent Student Body with the Appropriate Role Models. “There Are Very Successful Black, Asian Graduates,“ Adds Wardle. “WHETHER YOU’RE YOUR LOOKING AT SOMEONONE LIKE TRIX WORREll Who Created [Channel 4 sitcom] Desmond’sor malorie blackman, Author of Noughts & Crosses… We of the Fen Getting Application Forms That Say, ‘I KNOW [Singaporean filmmaker] Anthony Chen Went to Your School and I Want To Walk in His Footteps. ”
4. Cross-Sector Skillsets Are Championed Looking to the Future, Wardle Is Particularly Excited About Giving His Students The Freedom to Build on Various Skills – Especialyly in An IncreASINGLY COMPETITIVE MARKET LIKE GAMES GAMES. “The Writers’ Strike Showed Us That If We Rely on Just Film and High-End TV, It’s Feast and Famine,“ He Begins. “SO A BIG Thing Been Doing Over The Last Few Years is Making Sure All of Our Graduates in Below-The-Line Roles-Sound Design, Composing, Production Design
If a Student is a Sound Designer for Film, they Should Also Be Able to Games Audio, Says Wardle, and The Same Goes for Composing. “We’re definitely seeing that,” he adds. “We’re not quantifying that, because, there’s not an equivalent of imdb for credits on games. But i’m seeing nfts graduates do six months on a film Definitely The Future As We Try and Help People Build Sustainable Careers. ”
Director Olivia Owyeung on the Set of ‘Red Egg & Ginger’. Nfts
5. Individual Stories SpotLight Industry-Spanning Impact As Director of the NFTS, Wardle Admits He’s a Real Scholar – Or, as His Wife Says, A COMPLETE Nord – WHEN IT METS TO HIS GRADUATES AND Their Career Tradeeries. HE CAN PICK Anyone’s Name Out of An End Credits and Know ImmediaTely they’re one of his, and Highlights Some of the More Personal Stories Coming Out of the 2020-2024 GRADUATE IMPACT IMPACT IMPATE IMPATE IMPATE IMPATE IMPATE IMPATE. Francesca Gardiner, Writer On His Dark Materials d A Producer On Successionis now showrunner on hbo’s hotly anticipated Harry Potter series. This year’s report features the first photo of gardiner on the Harry Potter set. “She Graduated the Year I Started at the School,“ Recalls Wardle. “She Was My First School Graduation in Ceremony 2012 and Now, to Think That 12 Years Later She’s The ShowRunner of the Biggest TV Show in the World, Which Will Run for 10 Years… IT’S KID.
On Disney+’s Adptation of Jilly Cooper Novel Rivals Alone, Four NFTS GRADS BOAST AN IMPRESSIVE RESUME OF WORK. Alexandra Brodski, Director On Episodes Six and Eight On the Happy Prince Production, is Currently Directing All Three Opening Episodes of Richard Gadd’s BBC/HBO SERIES Half Man. Cinematographer Carlos Catalan Has Worked on Broadchurch, Dope Girls, Murdered by my boyfriend an Killing Eveand Production Designer Dominic Hyman on The Witcher, The Last Kingdom and Earned an Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction on HBO’s The pacific. Rivals Composer Natalie Holt Made History As The First Woman to Score A Live-action Star Wars PROJECT WHEN She WORKED ON OBI-WAN KENOBI For Disney+.
Wardle Says: “You Take People with a Real Passion and Energy and You Actual Teach Them. I Think A Lot of Higher Education Has Abandoneded. Maybe Six to Eight Hours a Week. Build Their Careers and Segy Out. ” AT SAME AMOUNT OF TIME, WARDLE WANTS TO MAKE CLEAR THAT SUCCESS IS NEVER LINEAR. “One of My Concerns is that [the report] Sends A Message to A Student This Going To Be Really Easy, and It Isn’t Actual, “Adds Wardle.“ Begind All Those Individual Stories Are A Huge Anaunt